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Toa Zarikai - New Life
''Toa Zarikai - Fate: New Life ''is the first chapter of the first arc, written by Capcom3. This covers when the Toa Zarikai became Toa and their first challenge. __TOC__ The Story Tulran was taller now. Larger. Stronger, too. He could feel it; there was a new strength, a power, inside of him. It was odd, to say the least. Mere moments ago, he had been a Matoran. He popped the stone in, and like that, he was a Toa. Odd. He had been out of it for a little, and he certainly couldn’t remember turning into a Toa. Just putting the stone into the Suva and coming out a Toa. He felt his mask—the same as it had been before. But now there were no scratches. He felt no dents or bruises along the masks, however subtle. No wear and tear of time. Remarkable! Tulran looked down to his body. His armor was of similar design to what Toa Vakama’s had been (or at least what it looked like in the paintings). But unlike the unified crimson shade of Vakama’s armor, Tulran’s was laced with brighter red; his shoulder and knee armors were both much brighter than the rest of him. It stood out. He looked to his friends. They all looked about the same as him—with different masks and colors, granted. “Destiny is cruel,” Erama said, shifting his strange right arm around and around, drawing Tulran’s attention. It was odd. Different from everyone else’s. It looked like the old Toa Mata had. But it looked out of place. There was no weapon held in it yet. It was so strange. “Destiny is cruel,” he repeated. “Erama, you’re fine,” Tulran said, trying to comfort the new Toa. “Hm. Hm.” Erama shifted it around again, experimenting. He looked at both sides of his strange arm. “Destiny is cruel, but it gives me what I need.” Tulran blinked. Everyone stared at Erama for a bit. The Toa of Earth merely continued observing his new arm. The room got extremely and awkwardly quiet. “…well, it’s too noise-quiet for me!” Pataki broke the silence. “I think everything’s singsong and glad-happy, don’t you?” “I wouldn’t exactly—” Tulran began to speak. “Thank you for agreeing with me!” Pataki cut him off, and gave him a pat on the back. “Alright, let’s go on with Toa-hero business, shall we?” “Fine,” Tulran said. “So where are our tools?” “Oh fire-spitter, we’re great Toa! And great Toa don’t need Toa-tools!” Pataki laughed. “Really? Because every Toa in the past has had them.” Tulran sighed. “I love the Great Spirit as much as the next Toa, but I’m annoyed that he didn’t give us weapons. If it’s a test, it’s going to be a difficult one.” And like that, their weapons materialized on them. Tulran looked to his left shoulder, and saw a Disk Launcher mounted on it. The Disk Launcher had one Kanoka lodged in it. He briefly tapped it, and it another Kanoka appeared in his hand. It seemed that he had multiple disks stored. He put it back into the others, and reached a hand to his back. He felt a hot, bulky object. He gripped it, and pulled it off; a Fire Sword. It glowed bright in the mild darkness of the temple. Tulran took a swing with it, and left a trail of sparks through the air. Erama had a Quake Breaker materialize on his back, which he was now holding in his one strange hand. He removed it, and put it in the other end, as an experiment. It felt natural. It felt right. That was good. A shield and sword were mounted on his shoulder, and he found they were combined. He held the sword, with the shield on its side. He got a feel for it pretty quick. It was a little heavy, and hard to swing, but he would manage. Erama put the sword and shield back on his shoulder. Pataki held his two Laser Crossbows in his hand. Two projectile weapons. He was not sure how much he liked this; Pataki had always been a very melee type of guy. He pointed the Laser Crossbows around, in various positions. They were, at the very least, cool-looking. The weapons had good aim, too. He mounted them onto his shoulders. Hopefully he would find a sword on whatever grand Toa-adventure they would be going on. Well…he also had to hope they would be going on a grand Toa-adventure. They weren’t just the Toa clean-up crew, were they? Kuhohla reached to her back and found two swords made of ice. She studied the swords for a bit, and managed to figure what kind of ice it was: Knowledge Crystals. She tapped the two against each other, and surprisingly, they didn’t break. Kuhohla studied the swords further; it had not been grown out of one Knowledge Crystal, and then forged. That would’ve made them too fragile. The swords were made of hundreds of Knowledge Crystals, bound together on such a small level it was almost invisible. And Knowledge Crystals were incredibly durable before being exposed to Protodermis. Remarkable. One sword was inscribed with a name she was unfamiliar with: “Xia”. The other had a strange word on it: “Katana.” She thought about the word and the name for a bit, before just shrugging and mounting the swords once more on her back. Nasiko gently touched the flowing, water-like surface of her shield. The shield was currently mounted on her right shoulder. She felt it; cold, wet. It was water. Upon tapping it, she realized that she couldn’t go through it. Her hand merely slid off as she tapped it. She reached to her back, and felt a large axe. It was like the ones Toa Gali had used. She pulled it, and held it in her hands. To use a Toa-tool like Gali’s…oh, what an honor! Gali was her hero! Wivitt found that his tools were on both his shoulders: two large shields. Protodermis Shields, it seemed, upon feeling them. They were extremely durable; he knew that just upon giving them a small knock with his hands. The shields were razor-tipped, too, meaning they were good for offense! A weapon and protection. Wivitt liked that deal. “Toa-tools for Toa-heroes!” Pataki exclaimed. “You glad-happy now, Tulran?” “Yeah,” he said. “Really happy.” “ALRIGHT!” Kuhohla shouted. “This is AWESOME!” Now, everyone stared at Kuhohla. It was certainly what they were all thinking, but it was still an odd thing to shout. “Well then,” Wivitt said, deciding to take the stares off Kuhohla, “What happens now?” “Given the vision we had, I would say—” Nasiko began. Tulran interrupted her with a quick grunt and a raised hand. “What vision, exactly?” he asked. “Oh…was I the only one with a vision?” she asked. “No, I mind-saw it too,” Pataki said. “Yeah, same for me.” Erama nodded his head. “I had the vision too,” Wivitt agreed. “Wait, the one with the big floating mask?” Kuhohla asked. Everyone nodded. “Oh, good, I’m not crazy!” Everyone started to open their mouths, but decided against saying anything. “What vision?” Tulran repeated. “…you mean you didn’t get one?” Nasiko asked. “No! I wouldn’t ask you about it if I had seen it!” He sighed and rubbed his head. “So please, what vision?” “…didn’t the air-flying mask say it was for Toa-heroes?” Pataki said. “Why wouldn’t Tulran have seen it too?” All eyes were on Tulran now. What was wrong with him? Was he not considered a true Toa? Had the Great Spirit cursed him somehow? Why hadn’t he seen the vision? “Never mind,” Tulran hastily moved forward, “What happened in the vision?” “We were told what we have to do,” Nasiko said. “We’re going to heal someone, and then we must journey to find a Mask of Truth.” “Don’t forget the needless fluff about our responsibilities of being Toa-heroes now,” Pataki added. “Lots of that.” “Fine. Let’s do that then,” Tulran said. “All there is to it.” “One problem with that,” Erama said. “We weren’t told who to heal.” “Hm…I can see how that would be a problem.” Tulran nodded. “Chances are though, they’ll come to us. Destiny does stuff like that!” “Yeah. Seems like Destiny likes to have fun with us, doesn’t it?” Wivitt laughed. “…say, don’t Toa-heroes get a strength-trial of some kind? A challenge?” Pataki asked. “Normally, yes,” Erama said. “No guarantee that we’ll get one, though.” And like that, a Rahi crashed through a wall. A very large Furnace Salamander. It was screeching, horribly, and flailing around, doing its best to smash everything in its way. “OH! And there it is!” Pataki exclaimed. “Everyone, ready to start being Toa-heroes?” The distinctive clicks, snaps, and shinks of weapons readying was all the response Tulran needed. The Furnace Salamander continued screeching and smashing about. Wivitt put out his shields in front of him and slammed into it. It knocked the Rahi over, but it drew attention to him. It rushed him and bit into his shield. Protodermis Shields are rather hard to bite into, but the Rahi’s jaw gripped an edge on the shield, doing its best to hang on, and Wivitt in turn did his best to try and fling it off. It began changing shape and its mouth and teeth grew larger and thicker. Hair grew into a large mane around its neck. The hair straightened into spines. Its body grew larger, more muscular, and slowly, it got a firmer grip on the shield. “Rock Lion,” Wivitt groaned as it finally took shape. Its mane grew white hot as it bit harder into the shield. The shields would not melt—they were designed to take on heat much higher than even this—but the Toa behind the shields was starting to get too hot for his liking. “Could use a little help!” he shouted. Nasiko rushed to Wivitt’s side, and removed her shield. She bashed the Rock Lion’s head, knocking it off the shield and dousing its mane in water in the process. The Rock Lion roared in response, and the water that wetted its mane turned to steam as the spines grew hotter. It pounced at the Toa of Water, but she rolled out of the way. She swung her Aqua Axe at the Rock Lion, but it swatted it with one of its mighty paws. It rose up with a growl and prepared to slam down on her. She raised her shield above her head, to defend herself. However, Pataki and Kuhohla drew its attention now. The Toa of Air was busy shooting it with his Laser Crossbows, and the Toa of Ice was rushing forward with her Ice Katana. The Rock Lion began to morph, ignoring the shots fired by Pataki, and the Toa rushing for it. It grew larger and larger, and stood up on its hind legs. Its fur grew into thick scales, and Pataki’s shots began to simply have no effect at all. Soon, its form of was almost too large for the Great Temple to contain. It rose, high above the Toa. This was like nothing any of them had seen before. This creature was massive. It had a mane of spikes, a tail like a sword, and a hide stronger than steel. They could not recognize it, not at first. But Tulran and Erama had always been very attentive to the little things in the Turaga’s stories. “TAHTORAK!” they shouted simultaneously. A dangerous and incredibly intelligent beast. A Zivon had struggled to fight the thing. It was only stopped when it was thrown into the Field of Shadows! However, even a Tahtorak’s intelligence did not seem to be present in the shape-shifting beast—only the rage of one. It swept its tail at Pataki, knocking the Toa back into a pillar with a loud “SMACK”. It glared down at Kuhohla. She slid beneath the creature’s belly, and swiped at its legs with her swords. Her swords bounced off, only leaving patches of frost on the beast. The Tahtorak quickly turned to Kuhohla, grabbed her, and threw her away, right into Wivitt. It screamed now, comprehensibly. “HURT!” it screamed. “PAIN!” “Seems to be what you want to do, isn’t it?!” Tulran yelled. He gripped his Fire Sword, and it ignited yet more with his own rage. “Well believe me, I want to do some pain and hurting too!” He ran at the creature, sword pointed at it the whole time. The Tahtorak lunged at him, growling and howling. Its teeth nearly got him, but he jumped on its head in time. He swiped at the creature’s spines and neck, blasting it with the heat of his sword. It screeched more, and with a flail, it flung him off and into the ceiling. Erama had been standing back, observing. Something was wrong with this creature. It was a shapeshifter, probably a Krahka, but they were highly intelligent. Even if it wasn’t a Krahka, and was very simple-minded, Rahi didn’t go mad like this. Not unless they were provoked, hungry, or in…incredible pain. He almost hit himself. He gripped his Quake Breaker and Earth Sword/Shield with one hand, and slammed them into the ground. The two weapons powers, in tandem, created a long crack, that the Tahtorak fell into. Its top half was still gripping the floor, and it was slowly pushing itself up, reaching its tail up and swinging it at the Toa. But this gave Erama some time. The Toa of Earth ran around, jumping over the tail, and he rolled behind the creature. He stared down at its back, and noticed a small patch of discolored hide on it. It looked unnatural, mutated, poisonous maybe. It was definitely painful, that was for sure. Erama ran over to Tulran, who had since fallen down, and was now preparing to rush the creature again. It was already beginning to unearth itself, and take another form. “Tulran, do you have any disks with the digits two, four, in that order?” Erama asked. “What power level?” he asked. “And why?” “Any above three!” Erama yelled. “It’s poisoned. This is what we have to heal!” “The vision!” Nasiko shouted, as she got up. The thing had now taken the form of a Makika. Not nearly as large as a Tahtorak, but far more venomous. It had acidic spit, and skin that was poisonous to touch. They had to be careful now. “Everyone, distract it while Tulran gets his disk!” Erama shouted. The Toa went into action, quick. Wivitt slammed the Rahi once more with his shields as he had before. But before the Makika began to attack him, it was distracted as Pataki hailed it with shots from his Laser Crossbows. It turned and spat at him, and it only just missed, melting the floor next to him. Nasiko threw her shield at it, smacking its side. Erama grabbed her shield as it bounced back off the creature, and threw it to her. He then slammed the creature with his Quake Breaker, vibrating it madly. Tulran now had his disk. He fired, and he realized why Erama wanted a Ga-Metru disk. This was a hard shot to get, and he had to guide the disk almost perfectly. It was taxing, and he had to pour all his mental strength into the object. The disk was making its way towards the Rahi’s back, and Tulran, from his vantage point, could now see the poisonous spot. But he missed. The disk clanged against the ground after a wild swerve caused by a wrong thought. “TULRAN!” Pataki shouted. “IF YOU COULD RIGHT-AIM!” “GEE, THANKS, PATAKI!” he shouted back. “I HAD NO IDEA!” “Oh, for Mata Nui’s sake…” Nasiko groaned. She ran to the disk, and threw it to Tulran. She then lifted her shield, and a glob of acid splattered against it. It dripped away, forced off by the watery surface. “SHOOT!” she shouted to Tulran. He fired once more. He had to focus better. Stronger direction. Definitely forward. Definitely right. Wait, that was left! Definitely left! It circled around the Rahi, flying over it, confusing the Toa who now stared at it. The Rahi continued its assault, reminding them to focus. Finally, Tulran lined up his disk, and slammed it into the poison. The Rahi screeched as the disk hit its mark. It stopped its attack against the Toa, and began flailing back and forth. It warped into various amalgamation of Rahi. Arms of Muaka and Tarakava, legs of Mahi and Kraawa, wings of Lohrak and Kahu, and other limbs and parts of Rahi—some that they had never seen even in the Archives. Finally, it settled down, and took a more Toa-like shape. He had purple armor all across him. He was slightly bulkier than the Toa, with a little extra armor, but overall, he was very much like them. He wore a purple Hau, but it seemed…more organic than their Kanohi. Like something very natural, not mechanical like theirs were. “Th-thank you,” he coughed. “R-really. Thanks.” He coughed again, and started breathing heavily, trying to get air back in him. “Are you alright?” Tulran walked over to him. “I w-will be.” He slowly started to stand up, struggling the whole time. Tulran gave him a shoulder to lean on, and he gladly took it. “I’m sorr-ry. I-I was badly h-hurt, and I…” “No, it’s fine.” Tulran gently patted him on the back. “But, what are you?” He paused, and looked to Tulran. He looked around at the Toa. He took a deep breath, to feel a little better, before he began. “A Krahka,” he said. “One of the last…the last, I think.” Removing his hand from Tulran with a bit of a shake, he stood in the center of the Toa. “I came up from the Archives. Mother always told me it was only safe if I looked like the Matoran did, and I did as she told. But as I was heading back, something struck me. I don’t know who or what, but it hurt. It burnt.” He began to shudder at the memory. “It drove me mad. I forget what comes after. All I know is that I came here. I’m sorry.” “Like fire-spitter said, it’s fine,” Pataki said. “Interesting to see another Krahka. I thought the last one was the one that had gone-away into the Shadow Fields.” “Yeah.” A look of sadness washed over the Rahi. “That was my mother.” “Oh…I’m bad-sorry,” Pataki said. “I don’t mean to bring up—” “No, I’m sorry,” the Krahka apologized again. “I’ve caused a lot of trouble. Whatever I got, I deserve it.” Suddenly, he turned away and his hands warped into that of an Archives Mole’s, and he began to climb down into the crack Erama had created. “Hey,” Tulran said. The Krahka looked up, from inside the crack. “Do me a favor and quit that.” The Krahka’s eyebrows raised. “If we didn’t want to help you, I wouldn’t have healed you,” he said. “So, look, no dramatics, okay?” “I…I appreciate that.” The Krahka shook Tulran’s hand with his Mole-paw. “But, just to be on the safe side, I’ll go back.” He turned around. Nasiko grabbed his shoulder. “Um…” She paused, holding his shoulder for a while, thinking of what to say. “Listen, this might sound crazy, but we had a vision. And it told us to heal someone, then go find a Kanohi mask. I don’t know if healing you was just some kind of test, or what, but I don’t think we’d get a vision about you if you weren’t important.” “What do you mean?” he asked. “She means we’d like you on the team,” Wivitt answered. Nasiko nodded. “You seem like you’re important.” “Yeah. The whole shape-shifting thing is great!” Kuhohla added. “But I’m no Toa,” he objected. “And I don’t think I’ve done much to prove my helpfulness thus far.” “You’re as much a Toa as the rest of us,” Tulran argued. “We only just became Toa, and we aren’t much better than you. So, how about it?” Tulran extended his hand. “First Rahi-Toa?” The Krahka stared at Tulran’s hand. He changed his paws back to hands, and took the gesture of good will. They shook hands. “I’d like that, I think.” “Alright!” Pataki joyfully shouted. “A team of seven Toa-heroes! We were even quick-faster than the Toa Nuva getting our seventh!” “Do you have a name?” Nasiko asked. “I don’t think any of us just want to call you Krahka the whole journey.” “Well…no, I’m afraid not,” the Krahka said, rather sad. “We don’t give ourselves names. I’m sorry.” “Not a problem. We’ll give you a name,” Tulran said. “Who are you?” “…I’m a Krahka. That’s a silly question to ask.” The Krahka chuckled. “No, no! I mean who are you mimicking?” Tulran asked. “Krahka can only mimic what they’ve seen, right?” “This?” He looked over his body. It had been a long time since he had first seen this form, but he remembered. “It was some carving I had seen, deep in the Archives. It was very grand, full of different exhibits and creatures carved in, and this Toa was at the center, digging away.” “Tukari,” Erama said, realizing who it was. “An old Onu-Matoran story. The Hero of the Archivers.” “I like that name.” Nasiko clapped her hands. “That’s your name then! Tukari!” “I think I like it too.” Tukari nodded his head. “I’ll take it.” Everyone smiled. Seven Toa, one of them, a Rahi named after a story. They were an odd bunch, even before Tukari had joined. But they would be a good team. They’d make certain of that. Whatever came after finding that Mask of Truth, and whatever came in between now and then, they’d be ready for it! “Do we have a team-name yet?” Pataki asked, breaking them out of their smiles. It had seemed like they were forgetting something… “Zarikai,” Tulran said. “There you go.” “What?” Pataki asked. “What does that even mean?” Nasiko, Wivitt, and Kuhohla all stared at Tulran, and nodded in agreement with Pataki. “What does that mean?” Nasiko asked. “Shouldn’t we be something like the Toa Metru?” Tukari asked. “Taken,” Tulran said. “Oh. My bad,” he said. Erama rolled his eyes. Just like Tulran to come up with something linguistically complex. Him and his stupid words. “I get it, Tulran.” “See!” Tulran pointed to Erama. “He gets it!” “The rest of the team doesn’t,” Pataki said. “So if you’d like to speak-say what it means?” “Za is a root meaning plan, a strategy. Ri means wild,” Erama said. “And Kai, that sound right on the end?” He started pushing the whole team together, and laid their hands together in the center of the circle they made. He put his own hand in after he was done. “Tulran, this is horrible.” “I appreciate your sacrifice, Erama.” Tulran smiled. He pushed on their hands. “Now, come on. Finish it. “Kai means unity. We’re the team with wild plans and uncontrolled unity.” “Couldn’t have said it better, Erama.” Tulran grinned wider, holding his hand with the rest of the team. “Can we agree on it?” “…well, it ain’t singsong, but it won’t be hard for the Matoran to shout.” Pataki agreed to it, and shook his hand in the pile, as a sign of team spirit. “It’s pretty clever, with that whole unity thing.” Wivitt shook his hand. “At least it sounds nice.” Nasiko shook hers. “I like it!” Kuhohla shook hers with great excitement. Erama shook his hand and nodded simply, if only with a slight groan. Tulran looked to Tukari. Tukari looked around the circle, and stared at his hand in the pile. “I would’ve been fine with anything, really.” Tukari shrugged, and shook his hand. “I’m with you, though.” “That’s who we are.” Tulran looked around at his teammates. “The Toa Zarikai!” And so, the story of the Toa Zarikai truly started. Their members united, their duty known, and their destiny awaiting them, their adventure had begun. They would find that mask, no matter how long it took. And whatever came after? Well, they’d like to see it! “Hey, anyone hear a weird noise?” Kuhohla asked. “Or am I going crazy?” Although there was some argument as to whether Kuhohla was crazy or not, she wasn’t wrong: there was an odd humming in the background. The team broke hands and they looked around. “What…what is that?” Wivitt asked. The humming was growing louder. “Mata Nui, what IS that?!” It was really getting on Erama’s nerves; he had never liked loud noise. “Whatever it is, I’m going to find it!” However, Erama couldn’t be heard over the humming. It sounded more like a loud whir and screech as its volume increased. “WHAT?!” Tulran shouted to Erama. “I SAID—” However, Erama didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, as a bright light filled the room, and the humming stopped. Everything had, and no one could see a thing inside the Great Temple. When the light faded, the Toa Zarikai had disappeared. When their ears stopped ringing, and their vision came back to them, they were quite shocked by their location: the middle of a desert. And it wasn’t anywhere in Metru Nui, that was for sure. “…dry-sand,” Pataki said with a frown. He was glaring at the desert now. “I hate dry-sand.” Characters Featured Toa Zarikai *Tulran *Erama *Pataki *Nasiko *Kuhohla *Wivitt *Tukari Trivia * The idea of Tukari came from the story of Lhikhan and how the Turaga passed it on as a fictional hero. Capcom3 thought "Well, what if every Metru had some sort of mythic figure in their stories?" And thus, Tukari, the Hero of the Archivers, was born.